creamy, dreamy peanut butter taste in a tempting new cereal. mmm! [ female announcer ] new multi-grain cheerios peanut butter. >> eric: welcome to "beyond the

headlines", i'm eric thomas. >> every year thousands of people struggle to con severing a child. there are more and more options available to help. it's estima that endometrosis is a condition that often leads to infertility. doctors tack go ahead the challenging case recently. the patient you are about to meet realized the severity of her disease as she and her husband struggled to conceive. carolyn johnson filed this story in may. >> the patient on this operating table came to the hospital in mountain view from portland, oregon hoping doctors can change her lif >> to my knowledge, this is the third time to attempted to be done. >>. >> reporter: it's the

complicated case he had ever seen. she had abnormal growth and had taken over the major arteries and causing irreversible damage. she was told by other doctors she will never have children. >> there is nothing they could do for me. to operate on it and essentially i could die on the operating table. no surgeon would ever touch it. >> reporter: but a second opinion led her to this doctor and a possibility solution to the endometrosis and the pain she was struck to control. >> the doctor partnered with the cardiovascular surgeon and they did minimally invasive

laparoscopy and to help the scar tissue and damaged kidney. remarkably a day after the surgery she was up and walking and off of drugs. >> it's a whole new beginning for me, really. >> katherine's case is a reminder to all women struggling with infertility. >> if you are trying to get pregnant. if your husband is, everything is fine and everything is okay you need to be the foc. >> the focus shifts from saving her life to creating a new one. >> very excited. >> eric: in fact katherine did get pregnant and the baby was

born in august, a than achievement her doctors said would all be impossible. joining me is dr. mitchell rosen director of the ucsf fertility proiflgs center. thanks for being here? >> thank you. >> eric: let's start off with the main causes of infertility? >> some of m of common causes of infertility is tubal disease, or a tubal factor where the tubes are blocked. that is a problem where the egg and sperm get together and ifthu the tube is blocked they can't get together. the male factor, some of the reasons whether there might be erection difficulties or having low sperm count. another would advanced female age or ref the female age. another one is difficulty ovulating, 5-10% of women come

in with infertility irons an then end me treo yeosz like we saw and ex unexplained infertility which is most successful things for a patient because we don't have an answer. >> eric: how permanent is that? >> depending on where it's located, somewhere between 5-25% of the time. >> eric: in fact, you don't use the word infertility? >> it's a harsh word meaning that you kont can't conceive. more specific would be sub fertility, a lower chance to conceive on any given month, it's still possible to conceive but a lower chance. >> eric: the term most people at home is what dugs does? >> ibf, is involunteer freo

ferlgtization a process where -- fertilization and you collect the egg and sperm from the man and you put them outside the body, clear the embryo and take the embryo and trancer it back to uterus. in vitro fertilization. >> it exploded in the mitt '90s. >> i'd ask you earlier before we started recording, is this science? >> it's a combination, the art comes into play because it's often we don't have answers and i think many couples want answers why they are not being able to conceive. there is a lot of psychological distress and a lot of treatment that goes along with it. it's a combination of all that becomes an art. >> eric: is it painful to go through this?

>> most of the time patients can tolerate it quite well. >> eric: dr. rosen, thank you very much. when we come back we'll learn about more

>> eric: welcome back. resent research indicates some study of infertility. women exposed to pdes were less likely to conceive. a substance that is found in

furniture, carpet and bedding. >> they are found in some furniture, electronics and other items in the home. they leach out into the environment and found in house du this stud so this study, more than 200 women were asked how long it took them to get pregnant. then researchers took blood samples. >> high levels, were about 30 to 50% lower odds of conceiving every month. >> women in the study were from an agricultural community salinas valley. how much of their inability to get pregnant were due to exposure to pesticides. >> we took that into account, and we association is independent of the pesticide exposure. >> some dispute the findings. >> this is really something that affects sperm and not the women themselves. that would be something

important to look at. secondly what if this population has rate of infectious disease damage. as a result they have damage to tubes or pelvis. >> they have been used since the '70s when new fire safety standards were implemented. in california they almost did away with the pollutants. here is what you can do at home. >> lower your exposure. mop with a weather mop vacuum with a filter. >> more studies should be conducted in other populations to make sure these findings hold. lyanne melendez, "abc 7 news". >> eric: back in the studio with me, is dr. mitchell rosen, director of ucsf fertility preservation center. we heard about environmental

causes of infertility. is that difficult to diagnosis? >> it's very difficult to diagnosis because we don't how to get at the etiology or how to determine if that veont for not getting pregnant. when we evaluate them nd of do our usual evaluation but we don't know the reason for those environmental exposures. >> and fertility preservation center, what does the name mean? >> it's basically a program that is designed to give treatment that will eggs, sperm, freezing tissue all to try to help retain fertility potential. so, for example, if a patient were to be exposed chemotherapy because they were undergoing treatment for cancer

which is basically their life saving treatment, that treatment can cause significant reproductive impairment. so we can do the so they don't deal with a double blow. >> eric: how long can you keep eggs and sperm viable? >> i call for an indefinite period of time. >> forever? >> forever, yeah. few companies may. there is a report that says up to 5% of insurance companies in the state of california cover fertility preservation but personally i have not seen it. that is another distress because it could be financially difficult. >> eric: i know you are not a

psychiatrist but i'm sure you have to do therapy and the mental condition of your patients. talk about that a little bit. >> going through fertility therapy isologically psychologiy stressful. they are trying tojernl good but don't have a reason why they are not getting pregnant. part of managing the patient is managing their psychological stress. it is, indeed, stressful. >> eric: tell us what it's like when it's successful, what do you go through. >> it's not describable. to achieve to help patients go through and getting pregnant and to have a baby is one of the most enjoyable things i can think of. >> eric:, thank you very much. we need to bake taix a break. we'll hear a woman's personal story when we come back.

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can i have the definition? swapportunity: the opportunity to swap a higher calorie snack for a yoplait light. can you use it in a sentence? mmm. swapping a 300 calorie donut for this 110 calorie strawberry shortcake is a good swapportunity. that's not a real word. oh haha it's real. [ female announcer ] delicious, creamy, yoplait light. over 30 flavors each around 100 calories. do the swap today. >> eric: welcome back to "beyond the headlines". we're talking about fertility issues and the variety of methods to be able to address them. here with me is dr. lifang liang a specialist chinese medicine and patient michelle purdie. tell us about your infertility issues and what it was like.

i wusband and i were in the late 30s when we got married. we anticipated we would probably have some issues. i got pregnant right away and i had a miscarriage. then we had another miscarriage. at that point our doctor referred us to a fertility clinic in san francisco, world renown clinic. we went and had all the tests done and ran the numbers and came back with ing news was that the only recommendation basically that was ibf an only had a we only h% chance of having a healthy babye we were so disappointed with that. that was our only option so we planned to do a treatment.

when we heard of dr. rosen who through other friends who had success, we went to talk to dr. liang to put us through the ibf process. she said, i can help you have a baby, i really think you can. it was not as invasive or expensive and hundred percent guarantee. so we decided to go for it. couple months later i was pregnant. had our first daughter and then 15 months later had a healthy son with the help of dr. liang. >> eric: how did it work? >> the kind like it 40s, 40 years old at this age the odds

are not so great. it can problems. and you sperm.... >> eric: so is this eastern medicine or western medicine or a of both? >> i think for,sse,sse, you see.

after the you need water and nutrition to help it grow. and then the sperm had three embryos but the baby have to grow. >> eric: we have pictures. they are beautiful. how much faith did you have in the process when you went in? >> we had zero faith going into the process because we were so scared. and then when we met dr. liang

that shiftenstantly. i felt like this is it. we're going to have a healthy baby. she has helped so many babies to helped into the world and the statistics, that is what i needed. i had been to eastern medicine and nontraditional so it was pretty easy to bankruptcy my head around it. >> eric: what was it like for the acupuncture and herbs? >> the herbs to have a healthy baby. acupuncture but y but you have a healthy baby in the end. >> eric: stand by. thank you for being here. we have to take another break

right now. we'll discuss the emotional toll when we come back. [ mom ] hey guys.

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>> eric: welcome back to "beyond the headlines." there are options to help women conceive but they are often expensive. dr. timothy johnson takes a look at financial assistance that is available. >> one in hundred babies was conceived in a laboratory. fertility treatments such as in vitro ferlgtlyization can range from $10,000 to is a,000 in cost. if more than one treatment is needed because the embryo does not survive or the woman mace carries that cost can soar. insurance does not cover fertility treatments, some have

switched to the brink of bankruptcy. while some loans and grants areu available you can apply for an ibf scholarship. a nonprofit organization matches qualified recipients with fertility clinics, gets doctors to donate services and drug companies to provide free medication. scholarship recipients agree to contribute $3500 of their own money to help the organization known as inside stay in business. >> eric: so deali the issues can be overwhelming. here is juli fraga a fertility psychologist which is an interesting title? >> a fertility psychologist does a complimentary to what dr. rose dr. rosen does which helps with the mind, body and emotional

effects that can bring in an individual and couple. >> eric: you know there is problems but dr. johnson mentioned scholarships. so there could be a money angle to this, too? >> definitely. just the financial strain and thinking about how much treatment might cost and if couple with the ibf and considering the cost and enormous stress, the cycle isn't successful can put a tremendous strain on wondering how they will try again and move forward. >> eric: how does that manifest itself. >> the emotions that i see and many people and experiencefeelie feeling the frustration and loss. a lot of anxiety and worry. feeling isolated from friends and family. oftentimes when fertility there is a major medical concern.

they are facing it as a couple and now hou they move forward they not want to share with everyone in their lives. >> eric: how do you work with that. is that cognitive therapy? >> i used a special form, called mind body medicine that has been developed by a house psychologist. he has done a lot of work around fertility. what i work with is helping peopleelaxation relaxation and s that can really help them to go into a relaxation response that can help them with the stress that they are experiencing. >> you create a space where couples can talk and come together and communicate and

providing support for the couples and helping them to outline and come up with a plan, ways they can support one another. >> eric: if you had vision for people at home that is considering this procedure, thinking about this procedure, what would it be? >> i would say, there are a lot of resources out there that people may not know about. there is a great website, a nonprofit organization that does a lot of things onhealth andodue health and family planning. that can be a starting point for families and individuals who are wanting to look at local resources in their cities. resolve.org. >> eric: and does it say how much it will cost them? >> there might be some of the statistics that you just shared but it will help getting them to

come to the righ the many of the fertility places in san francisco offer informational seminars where they can go and ask medical professionals to help and with the mind body medicine. >> eric: doctor, it was great talking to you. we are out of time.hanks special thanks for all of our guests. information about all of our guests is available on our website at abc7news.com/community. i'm eric thomas, thanks for joining us and have a great week. cu male announcer ] for some reason

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